How did Buster Douglas beat Mike Tyson?

He beat with a combination of him fighting the fight of his life, and Mike being poorly trained and unfocused. Not much else to say.

Douglas deserves credit though. Even a poorly trained Tyson would have beaten MOST guys... but Douglas had the talent and skill to where Mike couldn't afford to underestimate him, and he did.

 

Douglas had an all-galaxy jab, good mobility, put punches together well and had significant pop in his right. Physically, he had the tools needed to beat Tyson, or anyone else. The question with him was always whether he would be mentally focused on the task at hand.

To dispel a couple of myths...

Tyson may not have taken Douglas seriously, but Douglas was contending with the death of his mother going into the fight. There were intangibles that were handicapping both guys.

Also, the count was the same cadence for both Tyson and Douglas. It's a 10 count, not 10 seconds. And the count wasn't long in either case.

That said, I think Tyson probably would win a rematch more often than not, because Buster had cashed out, and checked out mentally, following Tokyo.

 

buster was a very good fighter, just lacked drive and dedication. the passing of his mother focused him on giving his all vs tyson in honor of her memory. i would wager that in that moment, buster hit the pinnacle of his life as a boxer, a son, and a man.

 

He beat Tyson because Tyson got an all-time bad night that day.
It's incredible how casual he was: almost as if it was another fighter in that ring.
Or maybe he forgot his "rehydration shot" (wink-wink) thinking he wouldn't need it?

 

I concur.

 

Just as people like to say Riddick Bowe’s was at his absolute peak in Holyfield 1.. the same can be said about Buster Douglass in the Tyson fight.. As someone mentioned Douglass had just lost his mother but didn’t let that waver his performance which could be used more as an excuse than saying a prime 23 yr old Tyson didn’t train hard.. Buster had all the attributes that could give Tyson trouble and for that one fight he applied them all and also didn’t quit when dropped with that powerful punch when most of Tyson’s previous opponents would have stayed down..

 

This. Buster's jab was on point and he was hitting Tyson from all angles. He had Tyson completely neutralized for most of the fight until he got too aggressive and got dropped by an uppercut, but he got up and finished the job.

Buster when he was in shape was easily one of the top 5 heavyweights during that period, but unfortunately he rarely was in shape and had a lot of lackluster performances due to regularly showing up 20+lbs overweight.

 

If Mike was so poorly trained, how did he manage to knock down Douglas?

 

Tyson was battling his own demons and fighting on many fronts, buster just got the credit, the champ was already down and out.

 

To be fair Buster would of beaten many a guy on the night,wasn’t a lucky punch or anything,some of those uppercuts were class

 

Who are those two?

 

this is a case where Tyson would have won had he been the Tyson of 1987 and probably in a few rounds. But Douglas was big and Mike's defense was not as great as before. He took things for granted and Buster then used his size to sort of manhandle Mike and hurt him and stop him.